South Korean court issues warrant to arrest ex-president Yoon
Yoon, who has been detained on insurrection charges following his short-lived martial law imposition last December, defied twice the special counsel's summons to appear for questioning. An assistant special counsel and a prosecutor were forecast to be sent to the Seoul Detention Center, where Yoon has been kept in custody, according to multiple media outlets.
The ousted leader and his wife were suspected of receiving free opinion polls from self-proclaimed political broker Myung Tae-kyun ahead of the 2022 presidential election in exchange for the illegal nomination of a former People Power Party lawmaker in a parliamentary by-election later that year. Yoon was also suspected of making false statements during the 2021 presidential primaries about his wife's alleged involvement in a stock price manipulation that constitutes an election law violation.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Kuwait Times
8 hours ago
- Kuwait Times
S Korea removing loudspeakers on border with North
SEOUL: South Korea said Monday it was removing loudspeakers used to blare K-pop and news reports to the North, as the new administration in Seoul tries to ease tensions with its bellicose neighbor. The nations, still technically at war, had already halted propaganda broadcasts along the demilitarized zone, Seoul's military said in June after the election of President Lee Jae Myung. It said in June that Pyongyang stopped transmitting bizarre, unsettling noises along the border that had become a major nuisance for South Korean locals, a day after the South's loudspeakers fell silent. 'Starting today, the military has begun removing the loudspeakers,' Lee Kyung-ho, spokesman of the South's defense ministry, told reporters on Monday. 'It is a practical measure aimed at helping ease tensions with the North, provided that such actions do not compromise the military's state of readiness.' All loudspeakers set up along the border will be dismantled by the end of the week, he added. He did not disclose the number to be removed, but a Yonhap news agency report — which the defence ministry declined to verify — said it was about 20. Handout photos released by the ministry show soldiers wearing body armor unloading sets of speakers as part of the process. Newly elected President Lee ordered the military to stop the broadcasts in a bid to 'restore trust'. Relations between the two Koreas had been at one of their lowest points in years, with Seoul taking a hard line towards Pyongyang, which has drawn ever closer to Moscow in the wake of Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Last year, the two Koreas were in a tit-for-tat propaganda war, as the North sent thousands of trash-filled balloons southwards, saying they were retaliation for propaganda balloons launched by South Korean activists. In response, South's then-president Yoon Suk Yeol ordered to turn on border loudspeaker broadcasts — including K-pop tunes and international news. Shortly afterwards, North Korea started transmitting strange sounds along the frontier, unsettling South Korean residents. Lee has taken a different approach in dealing with the North since his June election, including requesting civic groups to stop sending anti-North propaganda leaflets. 'We have strongly urged civic groups to halt leaflet activities in order to foster peace and ensure the safety of residents in border areas,' Koo Byung-sam, spokesman of the Unification Ministry, said at a press briefing on Monday. Lee has said he would seek talks with the North without preconditions, following a deep freeze under his predecessor. Despite his diplomatic overtures, the North has rejected pursuing dialogue with its neighbor. 'If the ROK... expected that it could reverse all the results it had made with a few sentimental words, nothing is more serious miscalculation than it,' Kim Yo Jong, sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, said last week using the South's official name. The two countries technically remain at war because the 1950-53 Korean War ended in an armistice, not a peace treaty. – AFP
Arab Times
17 hours ago
- Arab Times
Massive volcanic eruptions in Russia's Kamchatka Peninsula extremely rare: scientists
MOSCOW, Aug 4, (Xinhua): Russian air defense forces repelled a large-scale drone attack targeting Volgograd region's transport and energy infrastructure overnight, regional authorities said Monday. "There were no casualties," Volgograd Governor Andrey Bocharov said in a post on social media. Bocharov said that debris from intercepted drones damaged a high-voltage power line, disrupting electricity supply to the town of Ilovlya and nearby settlements. Emergency repair crews have been dispatched to restore power. In the town of Frolovo, a fire erupted at a technical building in the Archeda railway station, prompting temporary train suspensions as explosive ordnance disposal teams neutralized an unexploded drone that had landed on the tracks. Six trains, including Moscow- and St. Petersburg-bound long-distance services, were delayed due to the incident, Russian Railways' Privolzhskaya branch confirmed.
Arab Times
18 hours ago
- Arab Times
S.Korea begins removing border propaganda speakers in conciliatory gesture toward North
SEOUL, South Korea, Aug 4, (AP): South Korea's military said Monday it had begun removing loudspeakers along its border with rival North Korea in a move aimed at reducing tensions. The speakers had previously been used to blast anti-North Korean propaganda across the border, but the South's new liberal government halted the broadcasts in June in a conciliatory gesture as it looks to rebuild trust and revive dialogue with Pyongyang, which has largely cut off cooperation with the South in recent years. South Korea's Defense Ministry said the physical removal of the loudspeakers from the border was another "practical measure' aimed at easing tensions between the war-divided Koreas and that it does not affect the South's military readiness. Lee Kyung-ho, a spokesperson for the ministry, didn't share specific details on how the removed loudspeakers will be stored or whether they could be quickly redeployed to the border if tensions flare again between the Koreas. There were no discussions between the two militaries ahead of the South's decision to remove the speakers, Lee said during a briefing. North Korea, which is extremely sensitive to any outside criticism of its authoritarian leadership and its third-generation ruler, Kim Jong Un, didn't immediately comment on the South Korean step. The South's previous conservative government resumed the daily loudspeaker broadcasts in June last year following a yearslong pause in retaliation for North Korea flying trash-laden balloons toward the South in a psychological warfare campaign. The speakers blasted propaganda messages and K-pop songs, a playlist clearly designed to strike a nerve in Pyongyang, where Kim's government has been intensifying a campaign to eliminate the influence of South Korean pop culture and language among the population in a bid to strengthen his family's dynastic rule. The Cold War-style psychological warfare campaigns further heightened tensions already inflamed by North Korea's advancing nuclear program and South Korean efforts to expand joint military exercises with the United States and their trilateral security cooperation with Japan. South Korean President Lee Jae Myung, a liberal who took office in June after winning an early election to replace ousted conservative Yoon Suk Yeol, has vowed to improve relations with Pyongyang, which reacted furiously to Yoon's hard-line policies and shunned dialogue.
